♦ Poetic Sketches M to R ♦

Osage Questas

[ASR] Two part poem about the hills of South Central Kansas.

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Osage Questas

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I

The mist of myth
parts in the lightning,
striking minds,
illuminating
what has been forgot,
obscured by dust,
the dross of ages past,
just fine rock,
finer sand,
finest thoughts
that sift through yellow leaves
along the riverbed, flame
in the parting of the clouds,
before the storm
that gathers itself
to strike the snake of road
that beckoning, hisses
along our path
through the Osage Questas.

Kåre Enga

Catalogue number: [161.71]
12 april 2004.

II

Blackened earth meets
blackened sky
when lightning blast,
the lick of flame,
the smoke, in whispers rising,
raises questions to the ash
that falls like answers
to a prayer.
All black,
these storms of Death
that bring forth Life,
restoring light
to choked and gravid landscapes.
For when calm skies blue,
the open prairie shares
her secrets
in emeralds, sparkling anew.

Kåre Enga

Catalogue number: [161.72]
12 april 2004

Note: The Osage Questas are a rock formations east of the Flint Hills of Central Kansas. This is cattle and wheat country where they burn off the prairie each spring. Prairie is maintained by fire (manmade or by lightning). It removes the scrub and renews the fertile earth.